Fighting the Darkness
by peanut0565
Summary: They'd do anything to get Peter in their grasp, even use his brother as bait.
1. Prolouge

It was dark in there, always so damn dark. It didn't matter if he opened his eyes or not, it would not make the slightest difference. If he could open his eyes for that matter. Everything hurt so much that he stayed in that position they left him in from the last time.

That felt like such an eternity ago. The last time he felt light fall down on him, the warmth of it hit his worn corpse. His body was now as corpse-like as it could be, unmoving, barely a hiss of air passing weakly through his lungs, keeping his heart going slowly. The only thing the brain processed these days was his constant companion, the pain.

He hadn't heard that voice though in a long time. That was one good thing out of it. That taunting voice asking the same question over and over again. A question he did not have an answer too, and even if he did he wouldn't tell the voice. At the beginning he may have known, but now he could not even remember his own name. The agony took away everything from his old life, becoming his only mistress that would stay with him until his body finally gave up.

There was one name though that he still had, the name lost all its' meaning, but he still had it. _Peter. _The name had to have great importance to him, if it was the last thing he could remember.

Though his mistress was never quite happy when he thought of that name. It seemed that everytime he thought of Peter, he would get a second of warmth, followed by a dry heaving session. He didn't have the strength to move anymore, so it was more like gagging on his own insides. He could feel the coldness sink deep into his bones, and the blood freezing in his veins. The session ended with him falling into further darkness, the emptyness of his mind.

He wanted that now, it was the only way he could at least be numb to it all. He always knew he'd return to the dark hell of which his life was now. With the voice echoing in his head, the pain, the darkness, and that name that he could not even put a face to now. He knew it wouldn't be long before he forgot the name too, and everything from his former life would have finally slipped from his grasp.

He always knew when he was in just the normal darkness, not just because of the blinding pain, and coldness touching his back, but also because of the smell. It smelt like someone slowly rotting away, meaning him. Also the sound of water dripping from somewhere not so far off.

One day out of the blue he heard the door swing open. The blinding light filtered through the room and onto him, it burned him. He let out a silent whimper, unable to move and shield himself from the onslaught of light. He was waiting for the voice that never came. Instead was hurried steps, and a different voice. This one was far kinder, warmer, filled with the utmost concern and strain.

"What have they done to you, Nathan?"


	2. Chapter 1

_**Author's Note**__: Okay Rewinding now to the beginning of the whole ordeal. Thanks __**Marinawings **__for the review._

_Enjoy and please Review!_

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_"Nathan! You have to let me go!"_

_"If you go, I go!"_

_"You gotta let me go, You can fly. I can't."_

_"What do you mean?"_

_"It's taken all my power to stop myself from exploding, Don't Worry I'll be fine!"_

_"Peter!"_

He hit the ground, his feet skidding as he tried to stop. He felt the heat on the soles of his feet as the hard rubber part of his shoes melted and left a tarnishing mark on the ground on where he had been. He nearly crashed into the garage door before he was able to stop himself, coming within an inch of the actual door.

He extended his arm to find balance on the garage, leaning on if heavily as his head sunk so far that his chin was resting on his chest. His eyes were closed as he tried to catch his breath. His face burned with agony, and much of the front portion of his cloths had been torched lightly and were attached to his skin.

He knew he should have gone straight to the hospital, but he needed to see her. He knew she would be worried about him, after he hadn't arrived when he said he would. She probably called everyone by now, and was most likely on the verge of calling the police about a missing persons' report. He let out a small laugh that turned into a coughing session that he had been holding back since he had left New York in a speedy retreat.

He dropped to his hands and knees, tears stinging down his cheeks as the whole situation started to really impact him. He had deserted his brother, left him to that fate to save his own skin. Then again, Peter wasn't exactly laying down to the whole idea of _You go, I go_ either.

"Nathan!" He heard as he continued to cough, not having the strength to look up to see who it was. Not that he needed to anyways, he knew it was her. He felt a hand on his shivering back, shuddering phasing through each time he coughed, until he no longer had the oxygen to continue, leaving him gasping and on the verge of blacking out.

"Oh My God, What happened?" He heard her ask next, he really wanted to answer her. Slowly he lifted his head to see her horrified expression, which seemed to become more clear if it were possible.

"I'll...I'll... call 911...an ambulence." She stuttered, her eyes never leaving his face. "Just...stay...stay here." She continued, literally peeling herself away from her husbands' side to get a phone. Once she was actually away though, she made a mad dash into the house, Nathan watched her with half closed eyes for a second before he found the world was spinning on him.

He shut his eyes tightly, his face scrunching up, causing him to bite his inner mouth from letting out a groan. His wife returned then, her facial expression still the same as before.

"Nathan, look...look at me." She asked worriedly, her voice low and full of concern and on the verge of crying. He pried his eyes open and inch to see the outlines of her face with a slight blur. He was fading fast now.

"Let's...Let's get you inside, Can you stand?" She asked, already wrapping an arm around his unscathed back. He only nodded, not trusting his voice, because his throat was as charred as his face. He did make a decent attempt to help her help him get up, but the energy just was not there. His knees buckled as soon as he got half way to standing up, pulling Heidi back down with him. Heidi gasped in suprise and sighed, trying again to lift him up on her own.

He was too out of it by that time to be suprised that she had managed to drag him inside to the couch by herself. He tried to help as much as he could, but by the time he reached the couch he lost conciousness as the back of his head hit the throw pillow on the couch.


	3. Chapter 2

_**Author's Note:**__ Woot, I'm on a roll, an Update the very next day, hehe. _

_**Marinawings: **__I know I am so evil to them...especially Nathan. I love him, he's my hero. lol_

_**Phoebegirl319: **__All questions will hopefully be answered with this chapter XD, good questions though. Thanks for reading!_

_Enjoy and please Review!_

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_He remembered the wind whistling past him as he opened his eyes, he was falling. The wind stung the already painful burns on the edge of his face, forcing tears from his eyes as he tried to stop himself. His energy was dwindling as it was as he fell several feet a second. Glancing around he saw the edge of the Brooklyn bridge nearing him. As the edge came closer he stretched his hands out to grip them before he fell into the Hudson river._

_Success! His hands gripped the edge of the metal bridge, but the momentum yanked him down causing him to scream as stress was put on his already aching arms. He felt his shoulders literally dislocate themselves from there sockets, but he still managed to maintain a hold of the bridge. He dangled there for a moment, glancing around in the darkness, looking for any sign of Peter._

_Before he could finish his scan he lost his grip and began to plummet once again towards the cold water. He willed his power on, using the last of his energy to stop himself from hitting the surface, and succeeding. He needed get out of New York, and the only thing that came to mind was her. With that he took to the skies with all the energy he had left._

He opened his eyes to find himself resting in a white room. A tube was fit snuggly down his throat and IVs were inserted into his left hand. He blinked a few times as the scene before him became more clear. Heidi was sitting in the chair next to him, her hand on top of his, and her head resting tiredly on the bedside.

He should have known he was in a hospital right off the bat, before he even opened his eyes. There was a distinct absence of pain, and a fog that lay over his mind that was rather comforting at the moment. The white hot searing pain from the burns was enough to make him cry, he was too tired to deal with it.

As if on cue a doctor appeared at his door, holding a file, persumably his. The doctor was female, tall, blonde, and had green eyes. She smiled at him as she made her way over to his bedside. He just watched her as she pulled out a pen light and flashed it in his eyes, causing him to wince and turn away. She then turned away to look at the monitors he was hooked up too.

This fiddling was what woke Heidi up. She yawned and looked to his face. Her eyes were red and puffy, like she had fallen asleep crying. He would have smiled weakly if not for the tube. His eyes turned back to the doctor. She seemed to know exactly what he wanted.

"It wouldn't be wise to excubate you yet, Mr. Petrelli. Your throat is raw from the burns, and I don't want to risk your only airway to swell up on you." Her voice was kind and soft, but also had the tone that shouldn't be messed with. He blinked at her, imploring her to continue with his status with his drug haze. The doctor seemed to be very intuitive with reading eyes.

"The burns are extensive on the lower left side of your face and stretch down to most of your throat. Your clothing was melted to your skin, so we had to peel that off, but the burns there are not as bad as your face. The tests just confirmed that you have radiation sickness. We haven't seen anything like this before, and the closest thing that case that can explain this is the atomic bomb victims." She had a perplexed look on her face as she started to explain.

"Lucky for you, medicine has come a ways since then, and we have the treatments to help you fight the sickness and live longer." She continued with a small sad smile, that kind of smile you give to a person who has cancer and knows that their time is coming soon.

"How much longer?" Heidi asked fearfully. She always wanted a concrete numerical answer if she could get one.

"At least three years, Not more than ten with the treatment." The doctor answered with a straight even tone, looking directly at Heidi. He heard her gasp, and head sink to the ground. "Without the treatment it would be less then a year." She added quietly.

Nathan closed his eyes and sighed heavily, thinking about the time limit now placed on his life-span. His children came to mind then. It was more then likely that He wouldn't be able to see them graduate from high school, see them grow up. The mere thought of it made his eyes water. He hadn't thought about that before when he was taking Peter up, expecting to die right there and then. It was safe to say, he hadn't thought of much else then saving Peter.

He couldn't hold back the tears. He opened his eyes and glanced at the doctor who went on with her intended purpose of injecting something into his IV bag. He couldn't bring himself to look at Heidi, his pride was wounded, but he didn't want her to see that. The doctor finished and glanced down at him, setting a comforting hand on his forearm.

"I gave you a sedative to help you rest." She told him calmly, then noted it on his file and left him alone with Heidi.

"Thank you, Dr. Reimen." Heidi said quietly as the doctor left. Nathan faded out then, falling underneath the heavy blanket of the sedative.


End file.
